Sorry to hear of your ongoing issues! I would like to add to the comment re: CBD and to add a suggestion re: sleep quality & structured napping.

1. CBD:

I just (over the last 3-4 days ) started looking into using CBD to help treat my insomnia issues. There isn’t a lot of reliable research out there right now on CBD and its effects specifically on sleep or sleeping disorders. But from what I gather so far;

CBD as a therapy for mental health disorders: CBD may be a great therapy for anxiety, depression etc. These disorders cause sleep disorders/insomnia (or sleep disorders/insomnia nearly always lead to these disorders), so if that’s what is causing sleep issues then CBD is likely going to help.

CBD effects on sleep quality: There is a study done on rats where it looks like it decreases nREM and suppresses REM.

Label accuracy/dosage: Read a study that 1 in 5 products are not labelled with the correct amount of CBD, and that a lot of products can contain some amounts of THC. So you might still have to worry about WADA.

CBD microdoses for daytime wakefulness: I’ve come across claims in multiple articles/blogs that taking very small amounts of CBD throughout the day induces wakefulness and decreases daytime sleepiness. None of them were sourced.

CBD microdoses as therapy for anxiety/stress: Same as last point - have read it in a few places, but the claims don’t have any research behind them (though it makes sense to me

CBD is definitely something that I’m actively looking into for my insomnia - it takes hours for me to fall asleep (regardless of level of stress), I’m a light sleeper and I experience early morning awakening. But since you’ve stated that you have these issues (particularly that you easily fall asleep), I am curious to see if it does anything for you.

However - I did come across Cannabinoids as novel anti-inflammatory drugs. Other than a 10s scan, I haven’t read it, but I thought you may find it useful. The review “will focus on the potential use of cannabinoids as a new class of anti-inflammatory agents against a number of inflammatory and autoimmune diseases that are primarily triggered by activated T cells or other cellular immune components.”

2. Sleep Quality & Structured Naps

Have you experimented or looked into structured naps?

Looking at the chart where you note the amount of sleep you get each night, I’m wondering if the quality of your sleep could be improved if you had consistent amount of sleep each night and structured 1 or 2 naps into your day.

Most articles that I read on cognitive behavioural therapies for sleep disorders mention keeping a consistent wake time, even if you can sleep past it. That, combined with short naps might be worth considering?

PS

Also - check out Matthew Walker. He’s a professor of neuroscience and psychology. His research focuses on the impact of sleep on human health and disease, (rather than how to sleep better). He’s done a Google Talk which is great and written a book (which I ordered last week). I highly recommend giving his Google Talk a listen to.

Sorry this was long and apologies for not including many sources!! I’ve just started looking into CBD for myself and I haven’t consolidated my research properly yet, and happing isn’t a therapy that will work for me so I wouldn’t have kept tabs on research for that.

In addition, said ENT performed a Septoplasty and turbinate reduction five days ago, from which I’m still recovering. Stents were removed this morning, and so far I am breathing better through my nose than at any point I can remember in my life, and I’m still swollen and healing. I wish I had done this sooner, and look forward to the myriad benefits in the future.

Once that heals you should be able to use a nasal pillow on your cpap and it makes it a lot easier! I have almost no discomfort now with my cpap!

nash031:

I feel for you @Nate and don’t have much meaningful to add. I suspect an immune deficiency, perhaps caused by the gross reduction in gut flora from all the different antibiotics and the cocktail of other remedies you take in addition to stress. Others have mentioned this.

All the crazy stuff has only been for a week, the only constant stuff has been fish oil and vitamin D3 for years. It seems like there’s a group of people who think that my sickness is caused by lots of antibiotic usage and that gives me bad gut flora which then gives me a bad immune system.

To me, that seems the wrong way round. I think it’s more like this: “Undefined root cause” - > Sickness -> Antibiotics -> probably bad gut flora which I could improve on but not the root cause.

To me, that seems the wrong way round. I think it’s more like this: “Undefined root cause” - > Sickness -> Antibiotics -> probably bad gut flora which I could improve on but not the root cause.

It could be backwards. I think the persistent illness could be attributed to long term gut flora issues. All it then takes is one bug brought home by Thing 1 or Thing 2, and you’re into your cycle. I think just about everyone gets sick sometimes, particularly those of us with kids, but you definitely have a “thing” going on with persistent illness. Seems like the ENT bit probably helped with some of the sinus infections - maybe - but antibiotics always throw me off for a while and I need to be extra careful when - like now - I’m prescribed antibiotics, to make sure I grow the flora back effectively… so back on the potato starch before bed, greek yogurt overnight oatmeal breakfasts, kefir snacks, etc., for me.

A note about sleep: my sleep doc actually recommended that I go to bed later to help with some of my insomnia. The gist was some of us don’t need as much sleep as others. When training, I religiously get at least 8.5 hours in bed, but was only really sleeping for about 6 of those hours. When not training, I’ve been playing around with less time in bed and how I feel throughout the day. Lo and behold, if I go to bed later, my sleep is “more efficient” (his words) and my body seems to switch on better if I’m only in bed for 7 hours or so. When I get back on the bike here, I’m going to mess with later bed or earlier rising consistently and see if it’s something I can sustain, or if I start wearing down again. Either way, my sleep wasn’t spectacular even with 8.5 hrs in bed (this was pre-CPAP) so I’m trying to mess with one thing at a time.

Thanks for the recommendation on nasal pillows. You’re the second person who’s recommended those. That’s probably my next step if I can’t get beyond the 5+ hour mark.

Hey @Nate, I know you have mentioned you weren’t overly keen to try a naturopath till you exhausted other options, and I can understand that. I thought the same. Different issues, but I suffered from severe reflux for over 10 years and was prescribed medication and told ‘have this and you can do what you like’. Over time, the amounts prescribed increased, and I also suffered from severe lack of energy (go for a ride and come home to lie/sleep on the couch for a couple of hours - not by choice). I then decided to try something else and met with a few naturopaths. It took meeting one who wasn’t all ‘airy fairy’ for me to respect them enough to follow through on their recommendations. I found out that everything basically comes from the gut and gut health, including immunity, and mine was very bad. I have now been off all meds for 6 or so years and I have even had reflux related exclusions removed from my health insurance policy things are going so well. I also found that a side effect of the medication was my body wasn’t absorbing many important nutrients hence my lack of energy. Now that I have sorted my gut health out and I’m off the meds I no longer suffer from the lack or energy either, which is handy as I’m still training and now have two young kids! Given what you have tried and been through, is it not worth a try? You can keep doing what you are doing as well, and even just humour the naturopath angle, but who know’s, it may work? The naturopath I work with is the wife of the 5th place getter at Kona so she knows how to work with athletes also, and I can send through her contact details if you were interested. Anyway, just a thought mate.

I couldn’t have said it better. I convinced my wife to see an ND (naturopathic doctor) after endless trips to western doctors to try to heal her GERD involving endless prescription drugs and side effects with no improvement. After listening to numerous health related podcasts that featured NDs, I began to understand the ND profession and the high degree of training in natural healing methods, mostly involving diet. Because she had basically given up hope of ever getting better she decided to go for a visit. We got massive results within days simply by taking gluten out of her diet. Why western medicine basically ignores a persons diet in considering a treatment is beyond me. Garbage in, garbage out.

As we found out over time, some of the other common problems that NDs treat are; parasites, heavy metals in the body, leaky gut, autoimmune diseases, to name a few. Treatments are non-invasive. Specific herbs to kill parasites, chelation to help expel heavy metals, diet for leaky gut (which is likely one of your problems based on you diet history), cryotherapy to boost the immune system (i.e, cold showers) , etc.

Now when we have a health related concern, our first thought is to go see our ND.

I found out that everything basically comes from the gut and gut health, including immunity, and mine was very bad.

Thanks Casper. This is a common theme in this thread. I’m going to figure out a way to measure my gut biome; someone already pointed to a company where I can send my poop into . I’ll see if I can get the other podcast guys to do it!

I’m also going to try to rebuild it before I measure it, so I’ll be doing all the common things to rebuild. If all of that doesn’t work I’ll reach back out.

I would try measure it first and get a baseline. Then measure it again to see in there’s an improvement. (yes it’s weird to send your poop out to get tested though).

I heard Dr. Rhonda Patrick did this, and she’s a healthy individual to begin with. She tested her poop. then Supplemented with Probiotics( I thing the brand was Visbiome). There’s about eight strains of bacteria in this probiotic but after testing new strains showed up in the results, that aren’t in the supplement and weren’t in her poop before.

I was just telling my wife about your problems and she said that 20 years ago she had massive sinus problems every winter. Eventually she saw an Acupuncturist. She doesn’t know what he did but it seemed to sort out the problem. Now a short course of Sudafed cures it if it rears its head again.

@Nate - I have none of the issue you have other than the immune system that seemed weaker than weak. I started taking a daily 500mg capsule of Propolis (2-4 if I feel something coming on or I’m traveling) which after almost 6 months I can say I haven’t been sick (my norm prior was 1-2 sicknesses in that time-cold/flue type stuff). The It’s not a magic bullet but it also can’t hurt. it’s worth reading up on if you already haven’t run across this.

Eliminating dairy (and all dairy by-products, especially here in the states) is going to help you in so many ways. It’s a significant step that almost everyone benefits from.

The other thing I can say helped my immune system is 8-10oz of bone broth in the mornings. Again, not a magic bullet but another thing you’ve not mentioned trying (I know you are primarily plant based though).

I wish you luck. Sorry to hear the seriousness of your sickness issues.

When I was younger I found minimising dairy products really helped me, in terms of sinus issues. If I felt a cold coming on I would take echinacea, vit C and Zinc high dose. Like you I had a busy life and could manage a high stress level. I found the main thing that I could link to illness was overdoing the weight training. It may also be worthwhile removing all the things that you have in place as they don’t appear to be working, and go cold turkey and build training type and intensity back up over time… You will get it sorted… PS I am a chartered engineer not a doctor

I do have higher levels of protein in my urine. I did tests at home that showed this (based on Chad’s urine strips) and then I had urgent care do this again and the doctor said: “Yeah, they are a bit high but nothing to worry about”. I have a pretty low protein diet now and have meat only once every 1-2 days.

I’ll add this to my medical history. thanks!

Protein in the urine is definitely NOT normal and warrants further investigation. Talk to you physician about this. You likely will need to do a 24 hour urine collection to properly quantify it. If high, the next stop would be to speak with a nephrologist.

I would look at your immune system first before worrying about any supplements, cpap machines or tart cherry juice.

You said that immune replacement therapy would cost you $30k a year. What kind of health insurance does Trainer Road offer?

I have Common Variable Immune Deficiency (CVID) and was diagnosed a dozen years ago or so. Prior to that, I was sick a lot and couldn’t kick the common cold. It would stay around for weeks and weeks. I had pneumonia 3 or 4 times. I was tired all the time…I just figured everyone was tired as my kids were younger, I had a full time job and I was trying to run consistently. Every time I increased my training, I got sick. I was starting over all the time! There was no consistency whatsoever.

Since I started immune replacement therapy, I get sick maybe once or twice a year at the most. And if I do get sick, it lasts 2 or 3 days with no other drugs needed.

Because I’m not getting sick anymore, I’m able to handle a bigger training load with swimming, biking and running and have completed a couple of 70.3’s since 2013.

Initially, my therapy was Gamunex delivered via IV at the hospital once every 5 weeks. For the past 4 or 5 years, I’ve switch to Gammagard which I do at home (or sometimes at work) subcutaneously. Treatment takes about 2.5 hours once a week. Incidentally, Gammagard is made by Baxter, your favorite TR workout!!

The price for the drug and the supplies to inject it are about $1,700 a week. My insurance has a $5,250 deductible and a max out-of-pocket of $6,550. So for me, the most I’m going to pay to not be sick is $6,550 plus 25% of my health insurance premium as my employer pays the other 75% (which of course I was going to pay anyway).

But, Baxter has a program that pays up to $5,000 a year in deductible, co-pay, and out-of-pocket costs for those using the therapy. I just learned of the program this year. I think the idea behind it is that the drug company helps the patient pay the deductible so the patient will stay on the medication and after a month or two, the insurance company picks up the entire bill.

If your doctor says you are a good candidate, what have you got to lose? Try it for 3 months and see if you are still getting sick all the time, you can not do it and go back to tart cherry juice

I would try measure it first and get a baseline. Then measure it again to see in there’s an improvement. (yes it’s weird to send your poop out to get tested though).

I didn’t think there was much value in doing it RIGHT after I did antibiotics…like of course it’s bad. But how does it look after 2 months of “rehab” on my gut. Is it back to “normal” (I’m not sure if that’s a thing).

I think that would help point me in the right direction to see if gut health is causing sinus infections or if I can recover after I take antibiotics.

I was just telling my wife about your problems and she said that 20 years ago she had massive sinus problems every winter. Eventually she saw an Acupuncturist. She doesn’t know what he did but it seemed to sort out the problem. Now a short course of Sudafed cures it if it rears its head again.

How many times did she see the Acupuncturist? I’m literally sitting at a restaurant next door to one right now, and like I said I’ll try almost anything :). It’s $60/month for 2 sessions.